What then passed between them I cannot narrate precisely. Overwhelmed by
Hector's avowal, and quite unprepared as she had been for it, it was yet
no unwelcome news to Annie. Indeed, the moment he addressed her, she
knew in her heart that she had been loving him for a long time, though
never acknowledging to herself the fact. Such must often be the case
between two whom God has made for each other. And although he were a
bold man who said that marriages were made in heaven, he were a bolder
who denied that love at first sight was never there decreed. For where
God has fitted persons for each other, what can they do but fall
mutually in love? Who will then dare to say he did not decree that
result? As to what may follow after from their own behavior, I would be
as far from saying that was _not_ decreed as from saying the
conduct itself _was_ decreed. Surely there shall be room left, even
in the counsels of God, for as much liberty as belongs to our being made
in his image--free like him to choose the good and refuse the evil! He
who _has_ chosen the good remains in the law of liberty, free to
choose right again. He who always chooses the right, will at length be
free to choose like God himself, for then shall his will itself be free.
Freedom to choose and freedom of the will are two different conditions.
Before the lovers, which it wanted no moment to make them, left the
room, they had agreed that Annie must at once leave the house.
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